Pat Moss is 2002 Winner of Wild Earth Award

Pat Moss is a longtime community activist who has many years of experience working with environmental and social justice groups. Since 1978 she has lived in the Bulkley Valley in northwestern British Columbia and is best known for her 16 year campaign on the Kemano issue, a huge hydroelectric project designed to provide power for an aluminium smelter. The project would have required inflicting tremendous damage on the Nechako River, which a major tributary of the Fraser River, the largest salmon bearing river in the world.

Pat has also been active in the broader environmental community, serving on the B.C. Environmental Network steering committee for 10 years, as co-chair of the national Canadian Environmental Network for three years, and as chair of the Sierra Club of B.C. for three years. She has also worked with the Rivers Defence Coalition and West Coast Environmental Law throughout her career.

Ms. Moss' current activities stem from her significant background in native issues. From 1985 to 1991 she chaired the Smithers Human Rights Society which undertook a major public education campaign on the Gitxsan-Wet'suwet'en land claim and historic legal action. Since then she has maintained links with First Nations in the region and worked to develop communication between environmental, community, and native organizations working on resource issues. From these links the Northwest Institute for Bioregional Research was formed, with a board of environmental and First Nation activists along with natural resource scientists. Pat was a founding director of the Northwest Institute and has been its executive director since July 1996. The Institute continues to research and carry out public education regarding resource issues in northwest British Columbia.

In recognition of the significance of her contributions, Ms. Moss has been the recipient of numerous awards. For her work on the Kemano issue Pat received the Cal Woods Conservation Award from the Steelhead Society of B.C. in 1991 and the Minister of Environmental Individual Award from the B.C. Government in 1995. In 1993 she was awarded the 125th Anniversary of Canadian Confederation Commemorative Medal by the Governor General of Canada for "contribution to community". She was also the 1995-6 recipient of the Patagonia Fellowship. In 2002 Pat was awarded BC Spaces for Nature's Wild Earth Award for having displayed exceptional dedication, achievement and perseverance over many years as an environmental activist working to protect Nature in BC.

Return to the Wild Earth Award main page.

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